Radiology is the branch of medical science dealing with medical imaging for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment. The practice of radiology often involves the usage of X-ray machines or other radiation devices to perform the diagnosis or administer the treatment. Other practices of radiology employ techniques that do not involve radiation, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. Within the medical field, radiology can refer to two sub-fields, diagnostic radiology and therapeutic radiology. Diagnostic radiology is concerned with the use of various imaging modalities to aid in the diagnosis of disease or condition. Therapeutic radiology or radiation oncology uses radiation to treat diseases such as cancer through the application of radiation to targeted areas.
In diagnostic radiology, a typical configuration for a radiology device includes a radiation source used to emit the irradiating particles (e.g., X-rays) and one or more imaging devices corresponding to the radiation source. The particles are directed towards a target volume (i.e., a patient) situated between the source and imaging device(s), with the imaging device(s) being positioned to collect incoming radiation that passes through the target volume. The beams collected by the imagers are subsequently used to generate one or more images of the targeted volume.
The imagers used for X-ray often comprise integrated circuits in the form of amorphous-silicon (a-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) arrays. Traditionally, these imagers are mounted at the end of one or more “arms” attached to a gantry shared with the radiation source. FIG. 1 depicts a conventional digital imaging system 100 which may be used to capture images to assist a physician in making accurate diagnoses. As depicted, the digital imaging system 100 of FIG. 1 depicts radiation source 110 with a corresponding detector 120 mounted on a robotic arm 130. These arms may be implemented as robotic, programmable arms capable of automated moving and/or rotating the imager along one or more axes according to pre-planned routes. Along with providing support and stability, the arm also provides a housing for power and data transmission channels (e.g., cables) between the imager and the rest of the gantry. Recently, imagers have been developed to transmit radiographic data wirelessly. For increased portability, battery powered wireless flat panel imagers have been developed. However, while extending certain advantages, the shift from mains supplied power sources to battery powered sources also brings with it a new set of issues.